The GLEAMing of the first supermassive black holes
Abstract
We present the results of a new selection technique to identify powerful ($L_500 MHz 10^{27} WHz^{-1}$) radio galaxies towards the end of the Epoch of Reionisation. Our method is based on the selection of bright radio sources showing radio spectral curvature at the lowest frequency (${∼}100 MHz$) combined with the traditional faintness in K-band for high-redshift galaxies. This technique is only possible, thanks to the Galactic and Extra-galactic All-sky Murchison Wide-field Array survey which provides us with 20 flux measurements across the 70-$230 MHz$ range. For this pilot project, we focus on the GAMA 09 field to demonstrate our technique. We present the results of our follow-up campaign with the Very Large Telescope, Australian Telescope Compact Array, and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array to locate the host galaxy and to determine its redshift. Of our four candidate high-redshift sources, we find two powerful radio galaxies in the $15.5$ has a high 25-50% success rate.